Amy Goodman: Surviving a CIA ‘Black Site’

from Truthdig:



Surviving a CIA ‘Black Site’

Posted on Dec 18, 2007
By Amy Goodman

The kidnap and torture program of the Bush administration, with its secret CIA “black site” prisons and “torture taxi” flights on private jets, saw a little light of day this week. I spoke to Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah in his first broadcast interview. Bashmilah was a victim of the CIA’s so-called extraordinary rendition program, in which people are grabbed from their homes, out of airports, off the streets, and are whisked away, far from the prying eyes of the U.S. Congress, the press, far from the reach of the courts, to countries where cruelty and torture are routine.

Bashmilah is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and by the New York University School of Law International Human Rights Clinic in a lawsuit with four other victims of CIA rendition. They are suing not the U.S. government, not the CIA, but a company called Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Corp. A former Jeppesen employee, Sean Belcher, entered an affidavit in support of Bashmilah, reporting that Jeppesen executive Bob Overby bragged, “We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights,” further explaining to staff that he was speaking of “the torture flights,” and that they paid very well.

Through a translator, over the phone from his home in Yemen, Bashmilah described how his ordeal began on Oct. 21, 2003, when he was arrested in Amman, Jordan: “It was approximately six days, but what I endured there is worth years. They wanted me to confess to having some connections to some individuals of al-Qaida. They tried several times to get me to confess, and every time I said no, I would get either a kick, a slap or a curse. Then they said that if I did not confess, they will bring my wife and rape her in front of me. And out of fear for what would happen to my family, I screamed and I fainted. After I came to, I told them that ‘please, don’t do anything to my family. I would cooperate with you in any way you want.’”

After signing a false confession, he was told he was going to be released. In the process of being led through the Jordanian intelligence facility, he lifted his blindfold. “I saw another man who had a Western look. He was white and somewhat overweight and had dark glasses on. I realized then that they were probably handing me over to some other agency, because during the interrogations I had with the Jordanians, one of the threats was that if I did not confess, they will hand me over to American intelligence.” He was prepared for transit, stripped “completely naked. They started taking pictures from all directions. And they also started to beat me on my sides and also my feet. And then they put me in a position similar to the position of prostration in Muslim prayer, which is similar to the fetal position. And in that position, one of them inserted his finger in my anus very violently. I was in terrible pain, and I started to scream. When they started taking pictures, I could see that they were people who were masked. They were dressed in black from head to toe, and they were also wearing surgical gloves.” ......(more

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071218_surviving_a_cia_black_site/

that the only possible response is to vomit? Reading this has brought me to that point. And these people call themselves Americans ... they aren't worthy of being called swine. That would insult the pigs.

How can anyone be proud of this crap or a nation that does this?

as much as this disgusts me, horrifies me, makes me sick to my stomach, my gut reaction is "so what else is new?" . . . that the U.S. has descended to these depths is a tragedy of untold proportions that will ultimately contribute to the final demise of a once-great nation . . .

RIP, USA . . .

and it isn't extraordinary rendition, it's just a basic kidnap and extreme torture, the kind of torture a tinpot dictator like Saddam Hussein or the Turkish or Saudi Arabian countries would indulge in.

I'm not disagreeing with your post just saying that we need to stop using their framing.

.... I'd prefer not to change their words, for legal purposes if nothing else.

the folks who wrote the article should have thought about the framing more.

QUOTE:And then they put me in a position similar to the position of prostration in Muslim prayer, which is similar to the fetal position. And in that position, one of them inserted his finger in my anus very violently. UNQUOTE


Maybe . . . "Do you like to draw blood" ??? and "Do you like watching people suffer" ???

Whose children are these who have grown up to act out such insanities in their insane world?